{"id":444592,"date":"2026-01-29T06:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444592\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:49:10","slug":"titans-backflip-over-future-of-veteran-winger-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444592\/","title":{"rendered":"Titans backflip over future of veteran winger – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gold Coast Titans<\/a> outside back Phillip Sami<\/a> is reportedly set to extend his time with the club after a dramatic backflip.<\/p>\n

It had been revealed towards the end of 2025 that Sami had been told he was surplus to requirements at Robina once his current contract expired at the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Sami, who has been able to negotiate with rival clubs since November 1, even suggested he would be open to going to the Perth Bears<\/a>, who were understood to be interested.<\/p>\n

The St George Illawarra Dragons<\/a> had also shown interest in Sami as they attempted to restock their outside backs, which are up in the air beyond the end of 2026 with Christian Tuipulotu<\/a> and Tyrell Sloan<\/a> among the off-contract list.<\/p>\n

But it has now emerged per News Corp that there has been a change of heart at the Titans over the future of Sami following Josh Hannay<\/a> commencing work at the club as the new head coach.<\/p>\n

Sami may not have fit into now axed former coach Des Hasler’s plans, but Hannay is understood to have already put a new deal on the table for Sami, and it’s likely the versatile outside back will take it up to stay with the Robina-based outfit beyond the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Sami, speaking at an open training session in Ipswich, told the publication it was exciting to have the backing of his new coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh has been massive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot for him to say that (he wanted me) to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt (my future) was up in the air in the off-season, there were a lot of reports out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor him to give me that call and say he trusted me (was great). He thinks I can do a lot for the club.”<\/p>\n

Sami is not the only player the Titans are now attempting to keep, with Cooper Bai<\/a>, who had reportedly all but agreed to join the Melbourne Storm<\/a>, now having second thoughts around his future.<\/p>\n

The young lock could join Sami in remaining at the Titans beyond the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

Sami, who played for Queensland in 2020 and has played 142 NRL<\/a> games for the Titans, is a key part of the club’s outside backs, and has been for a number of years.<\/p>\n

Youngsters pushing their way through seemed to suggest Sami’s days at Robina were numbered, however, that may not be the case with it understood the interest from Perth had also cooled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold Coast Titans outside back Phillip Sami is reportedly set to extend his time with the club after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-444592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}